If you’ve tried soldering wires to your railway track, you’ll no doubt have come up against the two ugly sisters of railway track soldering hell – melted sleepers and unsightly solder droplets on the rails. But there’s a better way.

It’s incredibly simple and although it involves slightly more the end result is well worth the extra effort, giving much more authentic looking track. It’s from Model Railways On-Line, the original is here.

The procedure is to remove the sleepers from the track, solder the wire to the underside of the rail, then file down the surplus solder and replace the sleepers. The wires are threaded through holes drilled in the baseboard as the track is glued in place.

The method provides a tidy connection with no melted sleepers or unsightly solder globules.This technique also works with ‘foam underlay’ ballast.

It results in track wiring that is all but invisible to the viewer and far more realistic track work. If you’ve got any soldering or wiring tips, share them here in a comment below. Alternatively, see my guide to soldering.